Acceptable and Unacceptable Harbor Freight Tools

[slammin.e28]

Those spring compressors look sketch as hell, lol. I wouldn't have used them once.

[iamsam]

bad:
sockets. a rounded or cracked socket will ruin your day, and your knuckles.

I have never had a HF socket fail on me yet, but then again, the "ratchet attachment" parts I have from HF are impact sockets, male and female torx sockets/bits, and allen bits. But none of them have failed, even after putting tons of torque through them.

[Nick_S]

I recently bought a pair of their spring compressors. I think they were like $10 and they worked fine but they look like very cheap cast metal and I'm skeptical of using them again. For a one time use job a lot of HF tools are great.

[agent]

Great idea for a thread!

Good:

Long handle wrenches. I have done my best to try and break them using the "attach the box end of one to the open end of the other to get leverage" trick but they held up great.





Glass blast media. I used this to completely strip a set of wheels down to bare metal that, ironically enough, I bought from the OP!

http://www.harborfreight.com/50-lbs-...dia-30972.html

[Wiglaf]

good:
calipers
welding stuff
simple tools
side grinder
clamps
jackstands
simple metal stuff

bad:
sockets. a rounded or cracked socket will ruin your day, and your knuckles.

any type of drill bits, taps, extractors. the "save your ass" tools which need to be made of strong steel, and totally backfire if they break.. craftsman or better minimum!!
taps and drill bits are perhaps the #1 case example of getting what you pay for, don't cheap out on them.

any cutting tool, such as tin snips mentioned earlier.
strong hand tools which I tend to abuse such as pliers, HF ones get all distorted, just don't cut it.
Even pipe wrenches and channel-locks I'd be skeptical of.

most other power tools, with the expectation that they'll be trash after 2-3 jobs usually they are cheap enough to get your money's worth so they are in a gray area. i moved side grinder up the list because i have not managed to break that thing yet.. but most of the saws and drills I've burned up. If it's "light duty" and you treat them with kid gloves then ok, but if you intend to power through a job then you will quickly find that you have more balls than the kids in China that these were made for.

[iamsam]

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-qua...tor-99849.html

Makes changing control arms a snap, or more like a pop!

Huh, I have wondered whether that thing works well or not, have you had any problems with it ever?

[mitchlevy7]

The socket adapters and extentions are iffy. Ive broken quite a few but I have 2 sets of the adapters.

Good
Sockets
Welding cart ($50, stable, had to cut a kittle to get all the lines in the welder)
Floor jack
Gloves
Angle grinder (wears out)
Breaker bars

Bad
Ratchets
Pen size propane torch
Torque wrench

[E30 331is]

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-qua...tor-99849.html

Makes changing control arms a snap, or more like a pop!

[iamsam]

Pictures are hugeeee too. Any way to resize?

I trued using the small thumbnail images from HF, but apparently they come over full size...

[brianao34]

Pictures are hugeeee too. Any way to resize?

They're just embedded off HF's site :/

[slammin.e28]

Pictures are hugeeee too. Any way to resize?

[brianao34]

Good
Tire Changer: This is PERFECT for removing old tires for shipping purposes or if you have a set of wheels to refinish. I wouldn't trust myself putting a tire on a wheel I have just refinished just because the tire iron is sure to scratch.

[iamsam]

OP, maybe you should somehow combine all of our posts into your first post so there is a "one stop shop" for HF tool reviews on R3V. Great thread idea btw.

[iamsam]

GOOD

Low profile floor jack. I got a "bad apple" floor jack, returned it for a direct replacement, and this one has operated flawlessly for months.


1000 lb engine stand. At $45 w/ the 20% off coupon, you can't go wrong. Hold up my engines without issue.



Any sockets/extensions/adapters, i.e. anything that you can put on a ratchet wrench. I ONLY buy this stuff from HF, I have yet to have one break or fail in any way.




This specific style of screwdriver (flat and phillips). Best screwdriver I have ever had, and a steal at $2.


Hand sledge. For $8, this thing works great, I always need to bash something on one of my BMWs.


Hand wrenches. Never had a failure, and when on sale, less than a dollar per wrench. Can't go wrong there.


6" digital calipers. At $10 w/ a sale coupon, these work great and have not failed me yet and remain deadly accurate.


In general:
Anything from HF is good that is not a power or air tool (with exceptions of course), things like bits, hoses, fittings, hand tools, etc are all great.


BAD

Air saw. Waste of money, it will barely cut through a sheet of paper without binding.


Nitrile gloves. These will disintegrate off of your hands after about ten minutes of handling any sort of oil.

[slammin.e28]

It's a life changer, the center punch/pin is spring loaded so as soon as you cut through the top sheet metal layer it pushes the layer behind it back a little, if that makes sense.

That's brilliant. I've got little holes all over my core support from drilling, etc. Ugh.

Sidenote, I've heard their pipe benders are garbage and more like "tube" benders.

Any experience?